Codex Climaci rescriptus, known as Uncial 0250 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering), is a Greekuncialmanuscript of the New Testament as well as a Christian Palestinian Aramaic uncial manuscript of the Old and New Testament. Paleographically the Greek section has been assigned to the 8th century (or 7th century), and the Christian Palestinian Aramaic section to the 6th century. Formerly it was classified as lectionary manuscript, with Gregory giving the number ℓ 1561 to it.[1]

Contents

The codex is a 137 leaf remnant of eight separate manuscripts, six of which are in Christian Palestinian Aramaic, which have been dated to the 6th century AD; and two of which are in Greek, which have been dated to the 7th or 8th century AD.

The Christian Palestinian Aramaic sections contain significant parts of the four Gospels, as well as the Acts and Epistles, and the remains of a large volume of the Old Testament in Christian Palestinian Aramaic, on 104 leaves (23 by 18.5 mm), mostly written in two columns per page, 18 lines per page in Estrangelo script. This manuscript, based on an original text which may date from the 4th century, is the world’s largest corpus of Christian Palestinian Aramaic, the dialect that would have been closest to Jesus’ household language.[2]

The Greek section contains the text of the four Gospels, with numerous lacunae, on 33 parchment leaves (23 by 15.5 cm). Written in two columns per page, 31 lines per page, in uncial letters.[3][4] In September 2014, it was announced that Codex Climaci Rescriptus contains early texts of Aratus and Eratosthenes in its Greek underwriting.[5] Both the Greek and Christian Palestinian Aramaic texts were discovered through Multi-Spectrum Imaging (MSI).

The Codex's upper text contains two Syriac treatises of Johannes Climacus (hence name of the codex): the Scala paradisi and portions of the Liber ad pastorem.[6]

(The Sotheby's catalogue reports this, but its list of folios reads "I John 1:1-9," i.e., First Epistle, not Gospel. Since it is on the back of II Peter 3:16-18 (136r & v), in canonical order, the ms may have the Epistle text.)[7]